Emory faculty books garnering national attention

Oct. 12, 2012

In recent months, a number of books written Emory faculty have been reviewed in prominent publications. Here’s a rundown:

Last month, the Washington Post reviewed Thrall, the latest volume of poetry from Natasha Trethewey, Robert W. Woodruff Professor English and Creative Writing, and Poet Laureate of the United States. The review called the book “a must-read collection that equals the power and quality of her third book, “Native Guard,” which won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize.

Strom Thurmond’s America, written by Joseph Crespino, associate professor of history was reviewed recently in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal.

The Times calls the book “a deft a portrait of the senator’s interminable career,” and the Post review opens with: “As Joseph Crespino approaches the end of this biography of Strom Thurmond, he shows signs of softening toward the senator from South Carolina known primarily during his long career for racism, cynicism, opportunism, hypocrisy and ruthlessness.” While the WSJ review contends that Thurmond “was neither the great sinner depicted by Mr. Crespino nor the courageous saint cited by some Southern conservatives, but a practicing politician and shrewd pragmatist who loved the Old South but welcomed the New South.”

In July, the New York Times reviewed Bernini’s Beloved: A portrait of Costanza Piccolomini, by Sara McPhee, professor of art history. The book chronicles the story behind one of Bernini’s most renowned sculptures. According to the review, “In the course of her study, McPhee cools previously overheated accounts of Costanza (“lips furious with passion, enchanting with voluptuous promises”) and provides an illuminating view of Baroque Rome.”

In March, The New York Times reviewed The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness, written by Kevin Young, Atticus Haygood Professor of English and Curator, Raymond Danowski Poetry Collection. The review stated that the book, Young’s first attempt at prose, “is an ambitious blast of fact and feeling, a nervy piece of performance art.” Its title is taken from the songwriter and musician Danger Mouse’s mashup of Jay-Z’s “The Black Album” and the Beatles’ “The White Album.”

The review describes the book as “it’s own kind of collage. It rummages around in the work of African-American writers and musicians—from Bessie Smith and Langston Hughes to Lauryn Hill and Colson Whitehead—and makes a series of sly arguments for black art’s centrality in American culture writ large.” A number of other publications, including Slate.com also reviewed the book.